Listed Building record MDR4459 - All Saints' Church, off Lower Road, Mackworth

All Saints' Church, off Lower Road, Mackworth, originally a 14th century building, restored c1851. At the time of the Domesday Survey Mackworth was a berewick of Markeaton manor. At that time there was a church and a priest on the manor. Cox, writing in 1879, considers the church to be undoubtedly situated at Mackworth rather than at Markeaton, based on information in the chartulary of Darley Abbey dated around 1200. The body of the church dates almost exclusively from c1370-1380, when it was evidently rebuilt throughout. It consists of a chancel with a vestry and organ chamber; a nave with north and south aisles; a tower at the west end surmounted with a spire and a large porch with a parvise over it. A general restoration took place in 1851, carried out, according to Cox, "with much care, and with less destruction of old parts than might have been expected". The church contains monuments to the Touchet and Mundy families, including an alabaster effigy on a tomb chest to Edward Mundy who died in 1607. (1) The church is still in normal use [1966]. (2) All Saints' Church in Mackworth is on its own in a field. It is largely built in the Perpendicular style and later. The west tower is thought to have had defensive purposes, as it has provision for barring the door in to the nave, no door to the outside, and also very small openings in its lower stages. (3) In addition to Pevsner's [1979] observations regarding the defensive nature of the tower, there are also cross-bow loop holes on the west and north of the tower, which are very rare features on churches. Much of the building is 13th and 14th century, but it was decorated and restored in 1851. It was at this time that the elaborate alabaster decorations were added, and a lectern with vine and grapes was added in 1903. There is a room over the porch, which until 1851 had a fireplace and a chimney, and was possibly used for the accommodation of a chaplain or sacristan. This room had squints, which are small holes in the wall, allowing the inhabitant to keep watch over the side altars. (4) An archaeological evaluation was carried out by Trent and Peak Archaeological Unit in 2006 prior to proposed groundworks within and outside the tower of the church. Although three trial trenches were proposed, only one was carried out, within the tower. The finds recovered ranged from late medieval date to 18th or 19th century in date. These finds include medieval floor tile that was probably from a former floor surface of the tower. Significant structural remains were also revealed, as well as a deposit that either represents a cobbled surface, or an 11th-12th century church foundation packed with rounded stones. It was concluded that further work could provide evidence for the early and unrecorded history of the church, and that any remains truncated by groundworks were to be preferably left in-situ. (5) All Saints' Church has an unusual range and number of scratch dials and other carvings contained within the exterior stonework. Scratch dials are of medieval origin, and were gradually replaced by scientific sundials and mechanical clocks, beginning in the 16th century. They are usually found in the area of the chancel or south door, but repositioning of the dials is common due to rebuilding. See source for pictures and details of individual carvings. (6) A Watching Brief was carried out over the preliminary clearance, consolidation and safe removal of debris following a fire December 2020. The plan of the church was divided by a grid, and workers sifted through the debris from each grid square. Surviving finds were divided by type, metallic finds included nails, iron work, vessels, crosses, candlesticks, lanterns, and floor grilles. Sandstone finds included worked and carved stone from the windows, the font, mouldings and fragments of the eaves cornice. Alabaster was extensively used, not only on the Mundy Effigy, but on the lectern, the communion rail, wall monuments and the reredos. Other finds included quantities of window glass, marble, inscribed granite and slate in addition to decorative minerals such as Blue John and fluorspar. All mineral-based finds were fragmented. Finds were catalogued, dry-brushed and boxed, and retained on site in plastic boxes stored on wooden shelves within two steel shipping containers. (7) From the National Heritage List for England: 'SK 33 NW; 6/85 13.02.67 PARISH OF MACKWORTH, LOWER ROAD (north side) Church of All Saints GV I Parish Church. Early C14, late C14, C15. Restoration 1851. Coursed squared sandstone with sandstone dressings. Welsh slate roofs with stone coped gables. Aisle roofs hidden behind parapets. Moulded stone plinth. West steeple, aisled nave and south porch, chancel with north vestry. West tower of two unequal stages divided by a chamfered string course. Angle buttresses with five set-offs, linked by pilaster strips to the battlemented parapet. The ground stage has only arrow slits and beneath the string course a cross-loop window to each face, possibly for defensive reasons. Lozenge clock face to south dated 1872. Bell stage has to all four sides tall 2-light bell openings with a transom and cusped ogee lights under a flat arch, set within a segment headed opening with moulded surround. Recessed stone spire with one tier of lucarnes. The south aisle has a 3-light west window with Perp style tracery. The south porch shares its west wall with that of the aisle. At the join is a buttress incorporating a stair turret. Porch is two storeyed and shallow gabled. To west and east a plain 2-light recessed and chamfered mullion window and a single light window above. Diagonal buttresses. Pointed arched doorway, double chamfered, Trellis pattern door. Sundial above with gnomon. South aisle has two 3-light windows under flat arches, with cusped ogee tracery, set in deep chamfered surrounds. Buttress between and diagonal buttress. 3-light east window with Perp tracery. The chancel has a C19 ballflower eaves cornice. Two bays divided by gableted buttresses, the east one with a crocketed pinnacle. Two 2-light Dec style windows, hoodmoulds with foliage stops. Priest's doorway with two wave mouldings and a frieze of ballflower. Hoodmould with headstops. All the details look C19 in their present form. 4-light east window with Dec tracery. Gableted and pinnacled angle buttresses. The north side has a lean-to vestry of 1851, with a chimney stack and a 2-light and a 3-light window with trefoil motifs. North aisle of three bays, divided by buttresses. Two 3-light windows as on the south side and in the west bay a plain single chamfered blocked doorway. Three small 2-light clerestory windows. North aisle west window of c1300, with Y-tracery. Five scratch dials on buttresses. INTERIOR: Three-bay nave arcades, octagonal piers and abaci, and arches of two orders. Similar chancel arch, dying into the imposts. Doorway to tower with provisions for barring it. In the south aisle, a Dec tomb recess with moulded arch and a piscina at the east end. In the chancel, early C14 sedilia and piscina, re-cut in C19. In the north aisle at the east end are two C14 canopied niches for saints and on the north wall a broad double niche. Rich Dec style octagonal font of c1870 with nodding ogee arches around the bowl Monuments: Tomb chest to Edward Mundy, died 1607 (south aisle), alabaster effigy with children along the front of the chest. Gothic tablet to Richard French, died 1801, by Hall of Derby (north aisle). Also an C18 cartouche and two other tablets. Sumptuously decorated late Victorian chancel. Reredos of 1878, of Derbyshire alabaster and inlay of various stones. Abstract patterns and traceried gables either side of the east window, with floral motifs. Said to be a copy in part of a reredos in a church in Pavia. Alabaster standard candlesticks of 1902, either side of the altar. Angels on twisted columns. Communion rails of 1893, white alabaster with Blue John and other inlay. Copied from a balustrade in Rome. Rich tiled floor. Carved canopy over the vestry door, of 1886. Angel corbels supporting a richly carved marble and alabaster crocketed ogee arch, with flanking twisted colonnettes, surmounted by three winged angels. Wall tablets on the south side in marble and alabaster, to Father Noel Mundy and Emily Mundy, died 1903 and 1929 respectively. Paired circular tablets either side of a cross. C19 choir stalls. Pulpit, 1896, of Derbyshire alabaster and green Irish marble on a Dorset marble base. Lectern of 1903 by Charles Lomas of Derby. Carved from a single block of Chellaston alabaster, a vine climbing up the stem and ending in leaves and grapes below the bible support. Stained glass east window of 1851 with figures of saints, characteristic of its date. Listing NGR: SK3202337751.' (8)